During the early part of the 20th century organized crime was rampant in many large cities of America, especially the city of New York. These gangs were organized into families of Italian origin and were commonly referred to as the mob or the Mafia. One of the best books about their activity was written by Mario Puzo and this was also turned into the Academy Award winning movie, 'The Godfather.' Now you can live the life of Cosa Nostra and become a member of the dreaded Corleone family in EA's faithful game adaptation of that classic film.

The Godfather is a third person action adventure game of Mafia life in 1940s era New York. The player takes on the role of a fictional mobster and must rise through the mafia ranks by completing game generated missions as well as various underworld activity till he eventually becomes the head of the family, or the 'Don.' The path to becoming Don is long and difficult, so expect a long road ahead if you wish to be the leader of the mafia.

The game is played in a somewhat fictionalized version of parts of New York City and a bit of New Jersey. You must takeover various businesses located throughout the map - these businesses often include illegal rackets - and this will earn you cash as well as respect. But these takeovers won't be uncontested as four other powerful families are in control of these places and you must out muscle and often out shoot them to take over.

While you are doing this, the game also has a set of missions based on the movie 'The Godfather' that you must play if you wish to advance. Through cutscenes that will feature the mobster you create, you will meet the characters from the movie and interact with them. EA has managed to get many of the original actors to allow both their images and their voices to be used in the game, so you will hear orders from Marlon Brando, joke with James Caan and take instructions from Robert Duval as well as many others from the film.

The first thing you have to do on the road to being the Don is design a mobster and name him; the game includes a detailed editor for this. Once created you can modify him anytime from the editor screen. You also decide what he is wearing at first, and as you earn cash you can buy more expensive suits and so forth for him. This is important as NPCs in the game react to your respect level and better suits earn respect; this makes talking to people easier and helps you accomplish more in the game.

Once you are happy with your wiseguy and have named him, the game opens with a cutscene movie. In it you see your father murdered and yourself as a boy helpless to do anything about it. Don Corleone appears to tell you that someday when you are older you will be able to avenge your father, so hold in your rage for now. The next scene is nine years later, your mother asks the Don to take you in to help you and he sends his trusted enforcer Luca Brasi to do this.

Luca saves you from being beaten by a few thugs, and you have to show him how tough you are by working them over. You are now in the training tutorial and the game explains how to fight and move. After dispatching the punks, Luca yells for you to meet two wiseguys and do what they say. They tell you two college punks have beaten up the undertaker's little girl and need a lesson, and you will provide that lesson. In this tutorial you have to slam the punks into walls first to hurt them, as punching won't work at first. Once you have taken care of the college boys, it's off to see Luca again.

While these tutorials are going on, you are restricted in areas you can go to, so forget about doing anything until the tutorials end. The next order of business is to meet Luca again, as he gives you your first gun, and teaches you how to shoot. Shooting is the key to advancing in this game, and if you can't master how to shoot straight you are as good as dead. And unlike other games, when your gun runs out of bullets, you have to stop and reload, so you had better pay attention to how many bullets are chambered in your weapon, as different guns have different size clips.

Now that you can shoot Luca gives you the next important lesson, which is driving, as you must drive him to a midtown meeting. Driving in the PC game is a little tricky as the car never quite follows the road and people often walk right into oncoming traffic. There is no penalty for driving on the wrong side of the street, nor for hitting other cars. If you run down pedestrians your heat level with the police may rise but you would have to kill a lot of folks before the police really cared. You can also bribe the police chief so that his street cops ignore these kinds of things for a time.

Luca tells you to watch from the ally while he meets with a rival family. They promptly kill him, and you have to now kill Luca's murderer to complete the tutorial. It takes a little practice to learn how to hide behind walls, crouch and shoot straight, but once you master these it will be like second nature. Once you manage to gun down Luca's killer you must now do the final tutorial, the high-speed chase. This is another skill that you will use in many missions. In this case the police will chase you while firing, and they are always faster then you are so you have to run them into parked cars and incoming traffic.

To finish the tutorial you must reach the safe house in little Italy, and if you do, the tutorial is over and the entire game map is now open. Safe houses are the only place in the game where you can save in 'Godfather.' But being killed isn't much of a penalty as you end up losing only a hundred bucks and inside an illegal clinic. You will be killed quite often until you understand how the game works. The rival families are rated for how many shots it takes to kill a single member, where the easiest go down with a shot or two, while the toughest take entire clips.

You can now go anywhere in the game, finding new types of guns, buying upgrades and ammo, as you will run out quickly. You will sometimes get cash and ammo from the dead bodies of mobsters you kill. As the only way to be Don is to control every business on the map, you will have to fight every family sooner or later. There is also a line of game generated missions that follow the Godfather movie. Completing these missions earns you cash and respect as well as promotions.

Be advised this is a very violent game with a lot of off color language, and it's really not suitable for kids. The more vicious your wiseguy is, the better the chances you will be Don of NY. The way to takeover businesses is to talk to the owner, and make him an offer he can't refuse. If he does refuse, you can start breaking up his place, assaulting his customers, or the easiest thing of all, start beating him until he gives in. But don't beat him too much or he might die, and then you get nothing. The dead can't pay protection.

As a game the voiceovers are excellent, and the video graphics in this game are superb. The movement of the characters and cars is smooth and the game seems free of bugs; I had only one CTD while playing over 20 hours. As an added bonus, when you complete storyline missions you open film clips from the Godfather movie you can watch. There are bonus clips scattered throughout the streets of NY you can also find.

I had a lot of fun with this game, and it's very faithful to its subject matter. If you ever wanted to live 'the life' of a mobster or just have some good fun, Godfather is worth the time. Remember, 'Never go against the family.'

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